Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Result Of Smoking On Fat Profile

Smoking cigarettes affects the amount of fats, lipids, in the blood.

Since the 1970s, scientists have documented the connection between cigarette smoking and changes in a person's lipid profile, which is a major factor for coronary heart disease and heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.

Lipid Profile Measures Cholesterol

A lipid profile is a blood test that measures cholesterol levels.

The American Association for Clinical Chemistry explains that a lipid profile is a group of tests that doctors order to determine a patient's risk for coronary heart disease and heart attack. These tests include total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

Smoking Lowers HDL Cholesterol

In 1978, a group of scientists explained the relationship between smoking and HDL cholesterol in "Cigarette Smoking and HDL Cholesterol: The Framingham Offspring Study." Scientists discovered significant reduction in HDL cholesterol levels in smokers, more significantly in women.

Why You Need HDL Cholesterol

The American Heart Association explains that there are two kinds of cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, which circulates in the blood and slowly builds up on the walls of the arteries; and HDL cholesterol, which carries cholesterol back from the blood to the liver, so it can be eliminated from the body. Because of its ability to clear cholesterol from the blood vessels, HDL is known as "good" cholesterol, according to the American Heart Association.

Children of Smokers at Risk

Children from smoking households have a higher risk of heart disease in later life.

Children who grow up in smoking households have lower HDL cholesterol than children in non-smoking households, according to a study published in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, in 1997. The study concluded that passive smoking increases the children's risk for atherosclerosis later in life.

Quitting Normalizes HDL Cholesterol

Ex-smokers who quit for more than one year have blood cholesterol levels similar to non-smokers, according to the Framingham study. This means that smokers who can stay quit for one year or more may normalize their lipid profiles.

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